Book Log #102: The Mist, by Stephen King

[annathepiper]

I was talking with kisanthe the other day online about how she'd just finished reading It, and how I hadn't read all that much of Stephen King's work myself--just It, Cujo, and The Shining. Out of general curiosity, and since I saw the recently released edition that ties in with the movie that's come out, I decided to tackle The Mist.

It's official: this is a tight little story, and pretty creepy as well. The prose is very spare and very clean, which is exactly right for the overall atmosphere of the plot. There's just enough setup to give you an idea of the protagonist, his wife, and his son, and how they've got an ongoing conflict with a neighbor about boundary disputes between their properties. Then a savage band of storms flattens their quiet community, and in its wake comes something even stranger: a mist filled with horrific monsters. The protagonist, his son, their neighbor, and dozens of others are trapped in a supermarket. Death, doom, and destruction ensue.

What really makes this tale work for me, I think, is the ambiguity of what the characters are facing. There's speculation about what causes the mist and its monsters--but nothing is ever proven. And yeah, the comparison of the monsters against the chilling behavior of some of the survivors is effective. My only quibble is that the ending feels a little rushed and weak to me. But then, I think that's also my automatic looking for resolution in a plot kicking in there. That there isn't any resolution to speak of, in this particular instance, is all part of the point. So: four stars!

Comments

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

LOL, rushed endings are a Stephen King hallmark. I'm a fan but the man rarely ends a book well (IMHO). (Still angry about the end of the Dark Tower series.) I always did like The Mist, though. I read it as the opening short story in Skeleton Crew, a book of short stories which actually has some of his best work, I think. Some of them are almost science fiction. My favorites in that book were The Jaunt and Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. Oh, and I think "Jerusalem's Lot" was in there, and it was a heck of a lot spookier than the whole Salem's Lot vampire thingy. You might check them out. :)

[annathepiper]

It turns out that spazzkat has a copy of Skeleton Crew, actually! And I'd had no idea, when I bought my copy of The Mist. He's already offered to loan me his book. I'll probably take him up on it after I finish reading his Harry Potter books, as well as the five Doctor Who novels of his still waiting for my attention. ;)

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Todd's Shortcut was *wonderful*.

And agreed w/you that some of his best work is in his short stories. Strangely enough, I could wax eloquent about some.

I say "strangely enough", and feel weird whenever King comes up, because while I like more than half of what he's written--some of it I think terrific--reading a lot of his commentary in teh last few years has made me no longer a King fan. And he seems to actively dislike "The Gunslinger", to the point that I refuse to read his rewrite of it, even tho Gunslinger & Carrie are his two best novels, imo.

ita w/Anna about the mist, also, and muchest sympathy from someone who is *frequently* very klutzie, to the point my s.o. has given me a nickname based on my tendency to bump into things. (we have lots of names for each other, but I give her reason to use this one at least once a day)

[annathepiper]

muchest sympathy from someone who is *frequently* very klutzie

Heh, thanks! Hopefully this won't happen again any time soon. Or at least before I'm done with the zapping.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Interesting to hear you liked it. I used to love Stephen King. I adored so many of his classic books through my teens - The Stand, Firestarter and It remain in my head as books that had enormous impacts on me (I have no idea how many times I read Firestarter - lots. Ditto his collaborative fantasy novel The Talisman). And then the newer books I was reading as he published them seemed to have lost a lot of their impact. There were exceptions, but they started to seem formulaic, less intense, and eventually I just stopped reading. I don't think I've read a novel he's written in the last ten years.

Maybe I should start again :-)

[annathepiper]

Note that The Mist actually isn't that new--it originally came out in the 80's. So one might argue that this isn't really the best of things for me to check out if I want to look at his "recent" work. ^_^

[annathepiper]

I'm vaguely interested in seeing the movie, but haven't gotten around to it. We may pick it up on Netflix or something!